I use the Grand Bois Randonneur, but I haven't got a great deal of experience with other sorts of touring bars, so I can't give you any definitive answer as to my personal preferences. I do like them, though.

I have Thorn Comfort bars on the expedition bike. Only one true hand position, but with the Ergon grips it's fine.

My everyday bike has Nitto Noodles at 44cm wide. Wrapped in leather, these are my favourite bars and will go on pretty much every drop bar build I do. I recently toured on them and they were sweet as. Most of the time I sit just back of the drops, otherwise within a few cm of there. Occasionally on the crossbar, and in the drops for a headwind.

Personally, I don't think it's too important to have an abundance of positions, as long as you have at least one excellent one.

eyremowing wrote:Thanks, other people have complained about the flex as well. They were pretty cheap so no great loss if I don't like them.

If you want to keep your options open keep the brake cables a tad longer than what you might otherwise so if you want to change your handlebars, that is the only thing you have to change. Also be aware that there are short and long pull brake levers, so if you ever have to redo the brakes (like you might if you go from a flat handlebar to a drop handlebar), you could end up having to change the entire braking system, from the calipers/pads to the levers

Tassiecelt wrote:An issue that I am thinking about too. Looking at a Fuji Tourer, it comes with drop bars, but having never used them I am not comfortable with them. I could change over for straight bars.

Give them a decent try before deciding. It doesn't take long to get used to them, and changing to a flat bar will be an expensive exercise.

Alternatively, look at the Vivente World Randonneur. It's the best value tourer and is offered with Humpert trekking bars as an option.

Can anyone advise of a readily available mtb handlebar that has a bit of a sweep backwards and is durable enough for handlebar bags etc? I'm thinking of a Thomson Ti 12 degree bar but they're pretty expensive...

Groovy Luv Handles are not available atm and I think the Jeff Jones H-Bars might have too much backwards sweep...

Last edited by Wingnut on Sun Oct 06, 2013 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've been humming and haaaing for a while now over final handlebar choice.I've never been much of a fan of aluminum for anything except Landrover bodies and certainly not handlebars.With much angst over price I repeatedly returned to look longingly at Jeff Jone Ti Loop bars.This posting in MTBR forum certainly has given me further pause for thought regarding Ti:http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-components/ ... 82020.htmlDont get me wrong as I'm sure any metal has a fatigue life but handlebars snapping always gets a gasp out of me as its the stuff of nightmares.Thankfully its not something that appears to happen too often if reading our forums is representative of whats happening in the real world.

I would be inclined to think the failure is more to do with the shaping of the bars rather than the material, those ripples are potential stress risers in any material be it Ti, aluminum etc. And as one of the posters says, all materials fail at some stage, my line of thought is a well built item of Ti or steel is better than a well built item from aluminum...

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